I learned to read from my grandmother's Addams Family collections. My plans to become a professional basketball player sadly stalled when I stopped getting any taller after seventh grade.

I've been a cop reporter, a city and county government reporter, a features columnist, a sports columnist, TV critic, an editor and a writer covering pop culture. Now I'm a movie critic. I think The Simpsons is the greatest TV show ever, Holy War is my favorite Matthew Sweet song and the Washington Redskins are my favorite team in all of sports. Harry Dean Stanton is always great, licorice never is. I've read Dracula more than once ("you are wise for one who has not yet lived a single lifetime"), and might again. I was an English major in college and love Faulkner and such, but my favorite book is Instant Replay by Jerry Kramer.

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